Wrong month? Check out our latest list of free L&D webinars.

Crocuses and daffodils are peeking out, the days are sunny, and we’re … inside! What a strange spring it is for everyone, hunkered indoors as we weather the COVID-19 crisis. Many of us are getting a crash course in remote work as we quickly get up to speed on teleconferencing, videoconferencing and the vast array of tools and hacks for virtual teams. The coronavirus may have robbed us of face-to-face interaction, but it can’t rob us of learning. There are tons of free webinars this month to keep you connected with your communities of practice. We hope they help you keep calm and carry on.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: Managing Virtual Workers Today
With the nation-wide move to have employees work from home to limit social distancing in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, many managers are faced with virtually managing their employees for the first time. Already 50% of today’s employees work virtually as of 2020 and many more would like to. 36% of employees would give up a pay raise for the ability to work remotely; 40% would be willing to take a pay cut for that option. Join Bob Nelson, Ph.D., author, and President of Nelson Motivation, Inc., to find out what it takes to successfully manage virtual workers, learn the pitfalls and successful tools and techniques other organizations are successfully using on this topic, and increase your confidence for effectively getting work done through workers who are not in the office.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Key Components of Building a Successful Internal Coaching Program (Free for ATD members)
Building coaching programs and coaching cultures within organizations is an increasing trend. The effect that coaching has on employee engagement, job satisfaction, productivity and retention is profound. The future of coaching is moving beyond just transactional to more transformational by building internal capabilities and capacity. This webinar builds on the “Building the Case and Demonstrating the Impact of Internal Coaching Programs” webinar held in November 2019. Brian McNamara, Chief Learning Officer and Director of Learning at International Trade Administration, will discuss the next steps to building a coaching program, which will focus on establishing a program strategy, plan and vision; mapping a program framework and processes; and recruiting, selecting, training and onboarding coaches.

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: From In-Person to Virtual Learning – The Time Is Now!
Organizations have grappled with the digital transformation of learning for years, slowly adopting new technologies in fits and starts. Instructor-led classroom training remains the top learning-delivery method, but as the COVID-19 crisis overruns the workplace, the digital transformation of learning must occur immediately. This urgency can help learning leaders drive change that eluded them for years, but engineering and managing the transition will remain challenging. Join David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst, and Claude Werder, VP and Principle HCM Analyst, both with Brandon Hall Group, as they look at the current state of L&D in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and reveals best practices for jump-starting your digital learning transformation.

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: How to Leverage Competency-Based Learning to Upskill Employees for Skills of the Future (Free for ATD members)
According to LinkedIn Learning’s Workplace Learning report, L&D leaders’ abilities to identify, assess and close skills gaps topped the learning and development priority list. How can you leverage this situation to demonstrate your value? Competency models identify what organizations need people in particular roles to do for the organizations to succeed and create competitive advantage. These models motivate people to mastery, ensure people remain relevant as skills change and provide people with road maps for how to be great. If the competency models define the required skills, then you need to make sure you have or create competency-based learning to close the gaps. In this webinar, hosted by Cheryl Lasse, Managing Partner at SkillDirector, and Lesley Roddam, Customer Success Manager at SkillDirector, you’ll learn how to:

• Create a thriving competency-based learning initiative.

• Identify, assess and close skill gaps.

• Recognize what type of competency-based learning works to build skills of the future.

• Help employees learn how to learn.

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 12PM – 1PM PT: Forecasting ROI: Four Approaches to Assess the Potential Value of Your Training Programs
While there has always been a need to show the value of projects, today, there’s even greater pressure to show value in terms that executives appreciate. Sometimes that pressure comes before an investment is approved. Other times, there’s a need to forecast an ROI based on participant perception of program content. Occasionally, it’s important to determine value of a program based on the predictive validity of test data. Now and then, forecasting ROI on improved proficiency with critical skills is a useful pursuit as it helps demonstrate value in mathematical terms, when those all-important business measures are unavailable. Forecasting ROI provides an indicator of the potential success of a program. It doesn’t replace the need to demonstrate the actual results, but it’s a useful tool and one worth adding to the training evaluation toolbox. Join Patti Phillips, CEO of ROI Institute, and Katharine Aldana, Learning Design Manager at Verizon, as they describe four simple ways to forecast ROI for your programs.

Friday, April 3, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: Introduction to Effective Remote Work: Differentiating Between Sudden and Sustainable (Free for ATD members)
As the COVID-19 situation continues to escalate, businesses all over the world are making rapid decisions about how to keep employees and customers safe while maintaining business continuity. One of the recommended approaches is allowing or mandating remote work for employees. However, when employees are unprepared for this sudden shift to remote work, employers risk losses in productivity and major disruptions to business operations. This webinar, hosted by Tammy Bjelland, Founder and CEO of Workplaceless, will explain the fundamental differences between sudden and sustainable remote work, and the essential skills and practices needed to succeed in both situations.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: Putting the Employee at the Centre: A More Human Approach to L&D at C Space (Free for ATD members)
C Space is a leading customer collaboration agency that connects the world's best-known brands with the people they serve to create customer-inspired growth. But what about their own employees? At C Space, their L&D team took a hard look at what they could do better to help their people grow and develop with the same passion and focus they give to their customers. They revamped their people programs and have started to implement new learning and development strategies. In this webinar, Leah Ben-Ami, Director of Learning at C Space, will share what they’ve learned so far.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020, 12PM – 1PM PT: Be Informed: Meta Research on Factors That Support Learning Transfer
Creating an impact from training is a challenge that learning professionals have grappled with for many years. Join Will Thalheimer, Ph.D., author, and learning-and-performance consultant and researcher, as he shares his new research report on learning transfer, in conjunction with Emma Weber, CEO and Founder of Learning Transfer and Evaluation Specialist, who’ll share her expertise on how to put these ideas into practice. As Will shares research nuggets, he’ll invite the audience to engage in predictions and reflections in a very interactive session. The report was published just a few months ago, but it has already sent shock waves through Learning & Development units worldwide. Join this webinar to have your questions answered about this brand new review of learning transfer research.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: The Neuroscience of DISC: Reinventing the Styles to Make Them Brain-Friendly (Free for ATD members)
Companies invest time and money in DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) assessments and training, yet most fail to see any sustained or measurable results. Perhaps this is because the styles are being taught in a way that puts them into short-term memory, so they never get triggered for application. During this webinar, personality guru and award-winning DISC author Merrick Rosenberg, author, keynote speaker and CEO of Take Flight Learning, will share strategies and insights for conducting DISC training that sticks.

Thursday, April 9, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: Foundational Training Skills from 50,000 Feet
While sky-diving provides excellent examples of opportunities to master skills, in this session, you’ll explore several facets of skills commonly explored in the process of training adults for the workplace. Join Adobe's Head of Digital Learning Evangelism, Dr. Allen Partridge, for this foundational tour through skills for learning and development professionals. Explore a variety of key concepts from 50,000 feet, giving you a solid foundation upon which to build your knowledge and initiate your training organization's skill strategy.

Thursday, April 9, 2020, 10AM – 12PM PT: ATD Troops to Trainers (Free for ATD members)
As a “soldier,” you’ve done quite a bit of training. You’ve led training and been in training more times than you can count. Did you know you can use those training skills and know-how to pursue a financially viable and rewarding career in the field of training and talent development after you separate? Talent development is a fast growing career field that attracts, motivates and informs employees in an organization. In this half-day event, with Lisa Spinelli, Content Manager at ATD; Patrick Malone, Director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University; Nelson Santiago, Facilitator at ATD Education; and Michael Bentley, Senior Management Consultant at Whitney, Bradley and Brown, you’ll:

• Learn about the field of training and talent development as well as the various roles that make up the profession.

• Learn more about ATD, our courses and certifications.

• Hear from veterans on their transition from military service to training and talent development.

• Gain personal branding, resume, interview, transferable skills and job search tips to help you land your first job in the field.

Thursday, April 9, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Now Is the Perfect Time to Elevate the Employee Experience
All is in flux in the workplace and at home. Managers and employees are in crisis mode. Everything’s changing and we all know how humans generally react to change. On the surface, discussing how to improve the employee experience during a pandemic may seem pointless. We’re coping, not advancing. But there are elements of good crisis management that can definitively improve an employee’s experience in the workplace — not just now but during business recovery and the long-term. Join Claude Werder, Senior Vice President and Principal HCM Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, as they share research and perspective — and solicit your ideas — on how to provide the best environment possible for employees during COVID-19 and beyond.

Thursday, April 9, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: Unplugged: Why Leaders Are the Catalyst to Reengaging the Workforce
Only 44% of HR professionals report that employees in their company give discretionary effort (energy above and beyond what’s needed to keep their job). A leader’s role is to engage others to commit their full energy to the creation of value. In some organizations today, it feels like employees have unplugged from their energy source. L&D professionals can play a strategic role in helping leaders lead in a way that enables employees to choose to reengage in today’s volatile environment. Join Tom Roth, COO of Wilson Learning Worldwide, as he discusses key engagement elements and ideas to reengage employees.

Friday, April 10, 2020, 11AM – 12PM PT: Five Keys for Effective Virtual Classroom Training (Free for ATD members)
Whatever name we have given it — online training, virtual instructor-led training, or synchronous training, to list just a few — it’s still people conducting live training with real people using computers, headsets, microphones, Internet and an online meeting platform like Zoom, WebEx or Adobe Connect. It’s not as easy as we would all like it to be, even during the best of times. With tasks such as sorting out logins credentials and passwords, getting the materials and slides ready for online viewing, and helping participants connect, it’s no wonder there’s a struggle to make live online training effective and engaging. Kassy LaBorie, Principal Consultant at Kassy LaBorie Consulting, will focus on five key areas and the specific tasks and strategies to help make you, your team and your organization successful with online training.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Engaging and Recognizing Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything in the workplace, but what employees need from their employers and leaders remains the same. Recognition, the cornerstone of employee engagement, is more important than ever during this crisis. However, performance-based, real-time recognition isn’t the reality for 53% of businesses. Integrating recognition into the daily workflows of leaders, managers and employees so it becomes habitual is easier said than done. Join Brie Harvey, Employee Engagement Evangelist for Achievers, and Claude Werder, VP and Principal HCM Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, as they explore leading practices for modern recognition in the workplace so it becomes a cornerstone habit that elevates the employee experience and bolsters engagement and retention, during this crisis and beyond.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 1:30PM – 2:30PM PT: Moving Presentations Online: Coronavirus, Training Sessions and Events (Free for IPL members)
Coronavirus is causing businesses to cut or make drastic reductions in business travel, and to cancel or move conferences and events online. But conference organizers, training teams and trainers still have jobs to do, so the question immediately becomes, “How do you do your job when people can’t travel or meet face-to-face?” It’s not a case of just taking your in-person content and presenting it virtually. If you’re to be effective, you need to understand how online presentations are different for the presenter, their slides and their audience. Once you’ve got a handle on that, it’s a case of figuring out how you can eliminate distraction for your audience and engage them with compelling content. Join Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon, and Hannah Harper, Senior Managing Consultant at BrightCarbon, to find out how.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: PowerPoint Add-Ins to Transform PowerPoint’s Capabilities
Everyone uses PowerPoint and everyone finds it both annoying and irritating, especially the repetitive tasks or times when you cry out in frustration that it can’t do something. But you can change things by using add-ins for PowerPoint — magical tools that give you superhuman abilities to do things at light speed or even things you couldn’t do before. This session, hosted by Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon, has a brief introduction to what add-ins are and how they work, and then live demonstrations of the best add-ins you can get, from the simple to the complex, including shape, size and position tools, ways to seamlessly add graphics, create custom colour palettes, format tables, set master guides and store an animations library, all designed to fulfill your deepest desires to make PowerPoint actually work.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Getting the Right Blend: Building a Blended Learning Strategy
Despite the wealth of learning methods, modalities and technologies available, most organizations still consider using instructor-led classes and elearning to be a blended learning strategy. Given the needs of today’s businesses and the modern learner, that’s a pretty weak blend. Learning happens all the time and in unexpected places, so a truly blended learning strategy must embrace that idea. Organizations need to provide an environment that supplements and reinforces traditional learning with more contextual, adaptive and accessible learning — all of which is focused on specific outcomes. Join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and OpenSesame as they explore what it takes to create a truly blended learning strategy.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020, 12PM – 1PM PT: Developing Relentless Learners in the Workflow
One of the biggest myths in the L&D world is that “we must train workers.” Workers are inherently learners. They fix, solve and improve work issues every minute of their work day. The challenge is that many of our L&D tools and methods are so arcane that lots of money, time and resources are spent on “telling workers what to do” instead of helping them to “learn better while they are doing work.” The goal is to support their natural skills and appetite for workflow learning. In this session, with Ray Jimenez, Ph.D., Architect of TrainingMagNetwork.com and Chief Learning Officer of Vignettes Learning, you’ll learn to:

• Differentiate “instruction learning” from “worker’s relentless learning” while in the workflow.

• Understand how to support workers in the workflow, but not insisting that they follow our instructions.

• Follow the “workflow learning” methods that are already built into the methods of productive work.

• Extend your formal learning instructions to commence, merge and intersect with “workflow demands.”

• Obtain reusable templates on Workflow Learning Design.

Thursday, April 16, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: Five Novel Ways to Use Video to Improve Employee Training
As companies stare down the challenges of ever-increasing compliance regulations, unpredictable turnover, and growing cultural and learning style changes among employees, businesses are looking for new ways to scale and support their training efforts. They’re finding that help in video. Adaptable to both formal and informal learning needs, video can help instructors increase training quality, speed and effectiveness — all while significantly lowering program costs. Today’s L&D pros have already seen the potential value that technology can offer in the modern training environment. Their real challenge is convincing their organizations to do more. Dave Dumler, Head of Product Evangelism and Product Management at Panopto, will show how you can go beyond the basic applications for video in employee training, and explore five new and exciting ideas you can take back to your own organization for using video to improve the reach and effectiveness of your training, support social learning, improve productivity and more.

Friday, April 17, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Mastering Virtual Management Under Pressure (Free for ATD members)
The virtual employment and management universe is expanding at a rate no one ever anticipated. These days, the opportunities for working remotely are more about necessity and organizational survival than just want or demand. As a manager, where does that leave you? No matter the situation, good managers shouldn’t let technology or distance interfere with dynamically directing and supporting a virtual employee or team. This webinar, hosted by Benjamin Bisbee at Rhinocorn Consulting, will help any manager, anywhere, learn:

• The growing art of effective virtual employee management.

• How to develop an effective environment of virtual workplace norms.

• How to ensure managerial humility and humanity in the digital age.

• Which workplace technologies are integral to your success.

Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: Four Strategies for Building a Culture of Learning Remotely
Adopting remote-work opportunities delivers positive changes to critical business metrics, such as reduced expenses, increased productivity and engagement, and decreased turnover and attrition. Join Michael Moore, Senior Advisory Consultant at D2L, while he explores the four steps every organization can take to build a culture of learning that maximizes each employee’s potential and gives remote workers access to the same professional development and skills-mapping support as those on site.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: A Creator-Centric Approach to Reskilling
In this session, Jeff Fissel, VP of Solutions at PeopleFluent, and Dawn Baron, Product Marketing Manager at PeopleFluent, will take a very prevalent term in our industry, “reskilling,” and introduce it to a very new and trending term, “creator-centric.” Can you imagine rebuilding your learning culture around the learner as the creator rather than the recipient of the content? It will happen, but instead of it happening to your organization, make it happen for your organization. This webinar will discuss how to engage employees in their own development by encouraging user-generated content and collaboration. These creator-centric approaches to reskilling will not only ensure employees become the nexus of driving learning, but will also communicate the organization’s commitment to changing the nature of how learning happens.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020, 10AM – 11AM PT: Once Upon a Time ... In Learning Measurement
Measuring learning has always been a challenge for organizations. Once upon a time, surveys, completions and test scores were just enough to get by. Today, the realities of workplace data have changed. Every business function is expected to apply data to guide their decision-making and validate the impact of their work. The inability to leverage data has left L&D open to scrutiny and limited the ability to take advantage of new technologies. Simply stated: if L&D does not fix measurement, it cannot move forward. Join JD Dillon, Chief Learning Architect at Axonify, and David Wentworth, Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, for a frank, practical conversation on how L&D can improve its data practices. There’ll be a discussion of proven principles that L&D can borrow from their friends in marketing to evolve their tactics and introduce data-rich strategies. They’ll also explore real-world examples from organizations that are applying data in new ways to improve their employee support. After this session, you’ll be able to confidently answer the question, “Can you really measure the impact of learning?”

Thursday, April 23, 2020, 9AM – 10AM PT: Look to the Future: How to Use Training to Build a Culture that Stops Blaming and Gets Back to Work Already
Much of what’s happening in our organizations today is nothing more than a thinly veiled blame game. Sooner or later, we all find ourselves accidentally contributing to a culture of duck-and-cover as we create ever more complex forms of the argument that “I did my part, I can’t control everything.” With everyone working hard to get the work done, but just a little harder to ensure the buck stops somewhere else, we all find ourselves stuck in a world of increasing stress and decreasing output. How can training help to fix this? In this multimedia webinar, Ed Muzio, Author & CEO of Group Harmonics, teaches the building blocks of looking forward culture. Train people to move away from blame and toward a clear-eyed view of what’s likely to happen next, and you’ll have made a contribution to your entire organization usually reserved for higher-level leaders and expert consultants. The truth is, you may be better positioned than they are to make this happen — you just need to know how.

Friday, April 24, 2020, 8AM – 9AM PT: A Culture of Engagement: Making a Difference Every Day Through Leadership Behaviours (Free for ATD members)
With a clear understanding of the interdependencies of safety, quality, patient experience, and employee engagement, many organizations are beginning to focus on how they can best leverage their most valuable asset — their people. The difficult task for those in leadership positions is to create alignment and inspire their caregivers while managing high volumes and an ever-changing environment. This interactive session, led by Martin Wright, Transformational Advisory Services at Press Ganey, will explore the interdependencies of employee engagement on the patient experience. The webinar will discuss why organizations struggle to sustain high performance, outline the road map for how to drive outcomes through people, and discuss ways to accelerate improvement through leadership behaviours. You’ll also discover behaviours and tactics that can improve outcomes when included as part of daily standard work, while also streamlining and decreasing duplicative efforts.

Tuesday, April 28, 2020, 8AM – 9AM PT: Beginners Essential: Creating Drag and Drop Interactions with Adobe Captivate
You’re just getting started with creating elearning courses and have learned how to add different slides, add objects, and apply some transitions and effects to them. You’ve also learned how to convert the objects to buttons and trigger some actions on clicking the button. Now it’s time to take it a step further, and learn how to create drag and drop interactions using Adobe Captivate. Join Pooja Jaisingh, Ph.D., Lead Elearning Evangelist at Adobe Digital Learning Solutions, for a step-by-step demo on how to create your first drag and drop interaction. She’ll also show you the different settings to create variations of the interactions to suit your content requirements. Be ready to get a glimpse of some amazing examples of how drag-based interactions can be used in your elearning courses.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 12PM – 1PM PT: Make MAGIC in the Virtual Classroom
Have you noticed that some online presenters facilitate their sessions with such passion and skill that it’s a pleasure to participate? They masterfully manage the web platform, create a powerful learning experience, keep it “up close and personal” and make it seem as if you are in a collaborative classroom. If you want to make MAGIC happen in the virtual classroom, then join Cynthia Clay, author of Great Webinars: Create Interactive Learning that is Captivating, Informative, and Fun in this complimentary webinar. Learn the five secrets of masterful online training that can help you create stellar experiences for your audience.

Thursday, April 30, 2020, 12PM – 1PM PT: The Need for Critical Thinking in Crisis Situations Is Now
Crises are totally unexpected, unknown and unpredicted. They threaten our lives, properties and partially cripple or may even force a halt to business operations. In these conditions, everyone in an organization must possess the necessary critical thinking skills and tools to assess and process the best approaches and responses to address the crisis situation, find solutions and evaluate the impacts of their decisions. The lack of this critical thinking process could lead to more risks and financial impacts to the company. In this webinar, hosted by Ray Jimenez, Ph.D., Architect of TrainingMagNetwork.com and Chief Learning Officer of Vignettes Learning, you’ll learn about:

• Understanding the impact of an organization’s employees and team leaders’ readiness for crisis response.

• Effective crisis response and the critical involvement of mindsets and preparations.

• Learn basic skills in critical thinking that apply to crisis situations.

• Creating organization-wide awareness about the unknowns and unexpected crisis that could hit the business.

• Case study on crisis responsiveness.